Unfortunately I know quite a bit about all the different materials (I'm a plastics expert), and also know quite a bit about all the different bonding methods used today in industry and have the scars to prove it, (if you touch dielectric welders during operation it cooks you inside, happens a lot when designing and testing the operations, (that's what I do, is all that crap for industry). I was asked to look at an old inflatable (Zodiac) sailboat a few months ago that had leaky seams, (probably 15 yrs old at least). This boat happened to be made with hapalon (not pvc). I determined that it was not repairable, all the seams had broken down, the adhesives had dried out, and couldn't be saved. My understanding is more modern boats made from fiber re-enforced pvc then dielectric welded with mostly lap joints hold up much longer, (no adhesives are used at all, the pvc is bonded thermally with a quick reacting heat source , (ie ...dielectric, laser, microwave, hot roller, etc). More recent rib and inflatable boats, ( Zodiac, etc) are made this way as well as back yard swimming pools, and inflatable hospital beds. Using mostly fiber re-enforced modern PVC's. Equipment made with these newer methods and materials should last much longer than stuff made even 10 yrs ago. Yea the materials and methods have improved in leaps and bounds so what was true ten years ago may not be true now. Plus the new fiber re-enforced materials are nearly indestructable. The sparkle swimming pool guys actually carry around a patch of their pool material around and challenge people to try and poke thru it with a knife, (I couldn't). Hobie is very tech savvy and I'm sure they are using the most current materials and methods. Basically what I'm saying is an inflatable bought today is a totally different animal from what was available even ten yrs ago and near impossible to even puncture. Just look at the many RIB boats out there with the 40hp motors on them, many down here use them offshore. I don't think you can punture them easily, or need to worry about the seams which are all lap welded thermally. I haven't looked at Hobie inflatables at all so I don't know much about them. Next time I go in the dealer I'll check them out and report back. Hope this helps FE
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